Lower Seed No Problem for Stanford

Stanford didn’t need its typical high seed to make it eight consecutive opening-round victories in the NCAA tournament.

Seeded No. 8 in the Midwest Regional, the Cardinal shrugged off a pregame technical for turning in a lineup card late, getting 19 points and 12 rebounds from Curtis Borchardt in an 84-68 victory over No. 9 Western Kentucky on Thursday night at St. Louis.

Casey Jacobsen added 17 points, six rebounds and four assists despite four-for-12 shooting.

“It’s a really, really weird role being the underdog,” Jacobsen said. “On past teams, if we didn’t make it to the Final Four the season was considered a failure.

“We’re looking at this like we’re going to make up for some games earlier this year.”

Stanford usually is one of the top-seeded teams. Stanford was a No. 1 the previous two seasons, a No. 2 in 1999 and No. 3 in 1998, but this season there’s only one senior in the starting lineup.

As a result, Stanford (20-9) will play top-seeded Kansas in the second round Saturday.

“We will treat that with the utmost respect, as if that was our Final Four game,” Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Western Kentucky (28-4) got the early jump when Patrick Sparks, who had 20 points and nine assists, made one of two free throws on the technical. Montgomery said he might need a lineup coach.

“That was stupid,” he said. “Somebody made a big deal of it and wanted to press the issue, so they really didn’t have a choice.”

But the Hilltoppers’ last lead was 3-2 as their 18-game winning streak came to an end with their first loss since Dec. 30 at South Alabama.

Stanford withstood a second-half charge from Western Kentucky, which nearly recovered after shooting 23 percent in the first half and scoring only 22 points--only one point more than its season low. A lead that once was 16 points was whittled to one at 44-43 after Western Kentucky hit three straight three-pointers to cap a 14-2 run with 11:49 to go.

“During that stretch, we finished shots and we worked our offense with patience and poise,” Western Kentucky Coach Dennis Felton said. “Stanford made the adjustments and then took us out of what we wanted to do.”

But the Cardinal quickly recovered with a 10-1 run-- the last five points as reserve Josh Childress drove the baseline for a dunk and hit a three-pointer in a 49-second span.

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Kansas 70, Holy Cross 59--The Jayhawks barely avoided becoming the first No. 1-seeded team in the history of the NCAA tournament to make a first-round exit, holding off Holy Cross at St. Louis.

Beside beating Holy Cross, the Jayhawks (30-3) also overcame their own history of failures--five early losses as a No. 1 seed since 1986.

They rallied from a five-point second-half deficit without All-Big 12 guard Kirk Hinrich, who sprained his left ankle in the final minute of the first half. He returned on crutches with less than eight minutes to go wearing an air cast and a heavy wrap, his leg elevated on a chair at the end of the bench.

All-American Drew Gooden had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead Kansas, which went unbeaten in the Big 12 and had a 16-game winning streak ended in the Big 12 Conference tournament final against No. 3 Oklahoma. The Jayhawks haven’t lost consecutive games since falling to Baylor and Iowa State Feb. 12-17, 2001.

Holy Cross befuddled Kansas with a matchup zone all night, and stayed in the game until the end despite shooting only 33.3%.

The Crusaders compensated by committing only nine turnovers and by patiently working the ball inside against Kansas’ heralded big men.

Kansas didn’t clinch it until Aaron Miles scored from the key with two seconds left on the shot clock to make it 64-57 with 51 seconds to go. Holy Cross had two consecutive takeaways but was stopped on the other end before Miles’ shot.

Associated Press

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Oregon 81, Montana 62--The Ducks were full of early-game jitters, feeling the pressure of being seeded No. 2 in an NCAA regional.

But after taking a deep breath and calming themselves, the Ducks were able to outlast 15th-seeded Montana at Sacramento. It was Oregon’s first win in the NCAA tournament since 1960.

“It might not have been an up-and-down track meet,” said Oregon sophomore guard Luke Jackson, who scored 18 points. “But toward the end of the game, I felt their guards were worn down. I felt we controlled the tempo.”

In a second-round game Saturday, Oregon (24-8) will play Wake Forest (21-12).

Montana’s season ended at 16-15.

Oregon sophomore point guard Luke Ridnour also had 18 points while senior guard Frederick Jones, the lone Duck with any real NCAA experience, finished with 16 points in 29 foul-plagued minutes. Robert Johnson, a junior forward, had a career-high 15 points on five-of-six shooting from the field.

Montana was led by senior forward Ryan Slider’s 12 points.